On the go: The Financial Conduct Authority has relaunched its pension transfer advice checker tool, which has been designed so that consumers can see whether they have received unsuitable advice.
The tool, which first launched in 2020 and was updated on April 21, has 11 stages asking consumers about the advice they received.
During the initial launch, the FCA said its assessment of pension transfers between 2015 and 2019 found that some advisers may have given unsuitable advice to transfer out of a defined benefit pension scheme into a defined contribution scheme.
It urged consumers to use the advice checker tool if they were advised to transfer out of a scheme, or if they transferred because the company encouraged them to do so.
The FCA said some of the changes made for the relaunch were to make the language clearer and make the user journey better.
The relaunch comes after the FCA launched a consultation last month on a redress scheme for former members of the British Steel Pension Scheme.
The regulator set out plans to deliver £71.2mn in compensation to former members of the BSPS who received unsuitable advice to transfer out of their pension.
At the time, the FCA wrote to companies that had advised on the BSPS, making clear that they should not dispose of any assets and maintain adequate financial resources.
This is to ensure that companies can meet the costs of carrying out a review and compensating customers for any unsuitable advice they may have given if the scheme is implemented.
The regulator has already taken action against a number of companies, including stopping a BSPS advice firm earlier this week from disposing of its assets.
This article first appeared on FTAdviser.com
